Bonnie Eng likes her Christmas baking easy, versatile

Bonnie Eng of Cokato likes her Whipped Cream Krumkakes most for Christmas because they are easy and versatile.

“They’re fun because you can fill them with different things,” said Eng, an applications solutions manager at Paisley Consulting of Cokato.

The krumkakes are her mother’s recipe. It is a unique recipe because it includes whipped cream and nutmeg. Also, making krumkakes often is a two-person job.

“I stood by her for so many years and helped her do it,” Eng said.

One person puts the dough in the iron, and the other person wraps the hot flattened pancake type cookie around a wooden cone-shaped stick, said Eng, originally from north Minneapolis.

Eng and her husband, Cliff, moved to the Dassel Cokato area when Cliff was transferred to 3M in Hutchinson. Eng taught Spanish at Hutchinson High School. She joked that her Norwegian sometimes has a Spanish accent.

They recently moved to Cokato from Dassel when Cliff retired from 3M. He now works at Saunatec of Cokato, she said.

Eng’s son, Dale, who is in the Navy, helps her make krumkake for Christmas. Their other son, Andy of St. Paul, helps make lefse, another two-person job, she said.

When Eng made krumkake with her mother, her mother used an old-fashioned iron heated on top of the stove. The iron fit snugly on the burner and was extremely hot. Once, Eng accidentally put the palm of her hand on top of the iron and burned it badly, she said.

As a result, Eng now uses an electric iron that can be purchased from any Scandinavian import shop, she said. It has two griddles, both with elaborate designs on them that are baked into the krumkake. It comes with several sizes of wooden cones, depending on what the baker wants to put inside the krumkake.

To her amusement, while traveling in Norway in June, Eng found a plate illustrating a Nisse with a platter full of krumkake. A Nisse is what Norwegians call a gnome. The platter of krumkake in the picture looks exactly like how Eng serves hers at Christmas, she said.